Soul of the Fire

There were those who already advocated putting to the torch all the gifted. Anderith held several of the more radical leaders in chains, Serin Raja among them. Charismatic, fanatical, and rabid, Serin Rajak was ungovernable and dangerous. If he was even still alive; they'd had him in chains for months.

Rajak believed "witches," as he called those with magic, to be evil. He had a number of followers he had incited into wild and destructive mobs before they'd arrested him.

Men like that were dangerous. Dalton had lobbied against his execution, though. Men like that could also be useful.

"Oh, and you just won't believe it," Teresa was saying. She had started back on the gossip she'd heard. As he pondered Serin Rajak, he only half listened. "This woman, the one I mentioned, the one who thinks so much of herself, Claudine Winthrop, well, she told us that the Minister forced himself on her."

Dalton was still only half listening. He knew the gossip to be true. Claudine Winthrop was the "perturbed lady" in the message in the secret compartment of his desk, the one for whom he needed to find a plum. She was also the one who had sent the letter to Director Linscott-the letter that never arrived.

Claudine Winthrop hovered around the Minister whenever she had the chance, flirting with him, smiling, batting her eyelashes. What did she think was going to happen? She'd gotten what she had to know she was going to get. Now she complains?

"And so, she's so angry to be treated in such a coarse manner by the Minister, that after the dinner she intends to announce to Lady Chanboor and all the guests that the Minister forced himself on her in the crudest fashion."

Dalton's ears perked up.

"Rape it is, she called it, and rape she intends to report it to the Minister's wife." Teresa turned in her seat to shake a small squirrel-hair eye-color brush up at him. "And to the Directors of Cultural Amity, if any are there. And Dalton, if the Sovereign is there, it could be an ugly row. The Sovereign is liable to hold up a hand, commanding silence, so she may speak."

Dalton was at full attention, now. The twelve Directors would be at the feast. Now, he knew what Claudine Winthrop was about.

"She said this, did she? You heard her say it?"

Teresa put one hand on a hip. "Yes. Isn't that something? She should know what Minister Chanboor is like, how he beds half the women at the estate. And now she plans to make trouble? It should create quite the sensation, I'd say. I tell you, Dalton, she's up to something."

When Teresa started prattling onto another subject, he broke hi and asked, "What had the other women to say about her? About Claudine's plans?"

Teresa set down the squirrel-hair brush. "Well, we all think it's just terrible. I mean, the Minister of Culture is an important man. Why, he could be Sovereign one day-the Sovereign is not a young man anymore. The Minister could be called upon to step into the Seat of Sovereign at any moment. That's a terrible responsibility."

She looked back to the mirror as she worked with a hair pick. She turned once more and shook it at him. "The Minister is terribly overworked, and has the right to seek harmless diversion now and again. The women are willing. It's nobody's business. It's their private lives-it has no bearing on public business. And it's not like the little tramp didn't ask for it."

Dalton couldn't dispute that much of it. For the life of him, he couldn't understand how women, whether a noble or a Haken girl, could bat their lashes at the letch and then be surprised when he rose, so to speak, to the bait.

Of course, the Haken girl, Beata, hadn't been old enough, or experienced enough, to truly understand such mature games. Nor, he supposed, had she foreseen Stein in the bargain. Dalton felt a bit sorry for the girl, even if she was Haken. No, she hadn't seen Stein lurking in the tall wheat when she smiled in awe at the Minister.

But the other women, the women of the household, and mature women come from the city out to the estate for feasts and parties, they knew what the Minister was about, and had no grounds to call foul after the fact.

Dalton knew some only became unhappy when they didn't get some unspecified, but significant, recompense. Some plum. That was when it became Dalton's problem. He found them a plum, and did his best to convince them they would love to have it. Most, wisely, accepted such generosity-it was all many had wanted in the first place.